


There's a Word

by orphan_account



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Aromantic Character, Gen, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 08:11:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4698710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark is aromantic, not broken. He's also 19 and hearing the word that fits like a glove for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's a Word

When Mark was a little kid he used to say no whenever his parents would ask him if he had a crush. Back then he just thought no one had crushes, like it was just no thing for everyone like it was for him.

When Mark was 10 "Do you have a crush?" turned into "Who do you have a crush on?" So Mark employed the strategy of just say whoever would make the most sense. He would say the boys at his school he was friends with, which led to a couple ruined friendships

When Mark was 16 he heard the word "transgender" for the first time. The word fit like a glove, it felt perfect on his tongue, Mark had a word. He had people who'd been where he'd been. He wasn't alone.

When Mark was 17 he came out to his parents. He didn't quite remember much of the argument, but it ended in his parents telling him that they were signing over custody of him to his older brother if he insisted on transitioning. Mark told them to draw up the paperwork because he would be packing his bags, if those were his choices. Three weeks later he was in his brother's apartment wearing his first binder and about to start a new high school, the closet had consumed him and he was glad that he could be Mark for once in his life, and honestly it felt good.

When Mark was 18 ot was off to college. Central City University. LGBT friendly, huge, great English program and even the place itself made him happy. Clyde helped Mark move his things into the dorm that Mark would be staying in. Putting clothes into drawers and putting up posters. Mark was still overjoyed at the fact that the school had allowed him to stay in the boy's dorms even though he was pre-any operations. He'd really only just started T a couple weeks ago. Freshman year was great, he made some of the best friends of his life, he was happy, and for once in his life he could ignore the lingering feeling of brokenness he'd had since the start of high school, when everyone had gotten obsessed with romance and Mark had only had vague disinterest.

When Mark's 19 and he's sitting around his dorm, Hartley and his boyfriend are scrolling through tumblr on Hartley's computer occasionally stopping look at something or reread something. Mark's doing nothing, mostly just doing something that's sorta like cuddling with the wall. It really isn't that comfortable for him, but he doesn't have enough motivation to move.

"Honestly fandoms need to stop with their thinly veiled racism." David says.  
"Seriously. Also using aromanticism as a prop for a way to write a non-white character off so they don't get in the way of bland ass white guy sex." Hartley says clicking something.  
"What's aromantic?" Mark asks turning away from the wall.  
"And he lives." David says in an almost monotone.  
"Look it up dickwad." Hartley says throwing a peice of balled up paper at Mark.  
"Mmm. I'm too lazy." Mark moans.  
"Your phone is two inches from your face." Hartley says.  
"My inability to have the motivation to do things normal people can do in a heart beat is astonishing, even to me." Mark says.  
"Too bad. Get up the motivation." Hartley says returning to the computer.

Eventually, long after Hartley and David leave Mark looks up "aromantic" on google. The first couple options lead him to a good definition of it.

Aromantic - noun  
a person who experiences no romantic attraction to others.

Mark thinks back to his whole life. As far as he can remember he's never had a crush. He's never been like "What I wouldn't give to date them." It's always been mostly "Ooh. They're super awesome and great and I wanna be their friend forever and never ruin this relationship."

For the next week Mark asks all hie friends when they had their first crush.

Lisa says she was 6 and the guy she liked was total trash. Len says he was 8 and gives no other indicators of who it could be. Hartley says 10 and that it was extremely confusing. Axel shrugs and says he doesn't really remember. The only overreaching theme is that at some point they all have had crushes. And Mark hasn't.

Mark spends most of the next month being sure. He thinks back, he tries to have a crush, though Mark later learns that even for non-aro people you can't ever really force it and all he ends up with is frustration and feeling like he was doing something wrong.

A couple days later his friends are having their once weekly taking over of the common room. 

Cisco and Lisa have colonised a couch and are sitting so close that Lisa's almost in Cisco's lap, which per usual they claim to be doing to "conserve space" AKA be incredibly close to eachother when inevitable makeout session insues. Hartley is doing something on his computer while stretched out with his feet on David's lap. Mick is sitting alone and flicking a lighter on and off in a way that would be vaguely unsettling if you didn't know him. Len is sitting next to him. Shawna is sitting on her own couch in a way that looks vaguely uncomfortable to Mark, but Shawna looks to be having a grand old time. The rest of the gang is spralled out in various places all over the floor.

"Scoot over." Mark says to Shawna. She sticks her tongue out at him, but moves over nonetheless.  
"Hey, dickwad. You're late!" Axel yells.  
"Go to hell, Axel." Mark says.  
"If I'm going to hell I'm bring you with me." Axel says.  
"Bi trans guy, bro I already knew I was going there." Mark says. Maybe he should say something. His friends are arguably the chillest group of people in world. Well sans Barry "No Chill" Allen, but he doesn't really count.  
"Hey guys are we ordering pizza or should I go back to painting?" Roy asks briefly looking up from his sketch pad.  
"Dunno. Pizza or Chinese?" Len asks.  
"Pizza." Everyone says in unison. A couple seconds later everyone's tossing money into the snapback going around. Shawna's snapback is the designated cash collector.

By the time pizza's arrived the hang out's in full swing. Barry's set up his computer so Netflix is playing on the flat screen and Mark feels a bit anxious so he can't quite focus on Iron Chef. He doesn't quite want to stand up and yell "Hey, asshats, I'm aromantic, deal with it!"

So Mark quietly makes his way over to Iris. She's probably gonna be a good person to tell first, she's a pretty accepting person and generally awesome.

"Umm Iris. Can I, uh, talk to you outside? Alone." Mark says.  
"Is something wrong?" Iris asks sitting up slightly so she's no longer using Barry as a pillow.  
"Nothing's wrong. I just wanna quickly tell you something without a 20 people around." Mark says slightly uncomfortably.  
"Okay. Be right back." Iris says before giving Barry a chaste kiss and following Mark out. Once they're outside in the little cove near outside the commons Mark takes a seat.  
"So what is it?" Iris asks.  
"I'm about 99% sure I'm aromantic." Mark says quietly.  
"That's great." Iris says giving Mark a quick hug. "I'm assuming you didn't want to tell everyone at once."  
"I do, but I don't really wanna be there when it happens." Mark mumbles.  
"You want someone else to break the news so that way when they talk to you it's from a place of love and respect, rather than just a surprised I-just-learned-something-and-I'm-confused place, I can understand that. Do you want me to tell them?" Iris asks placing a comforting hand on Mark's arm. He quickly nods keeping his eyes downcast. It almost looks like he's trying to take up the least amount of space, disappear into the bench.  
"I can do that. Do you want me to do it now and you can head back to your dorm? If you don't wanna go back in there I can snag you a peice of pizza." Iris suggests.  
"Yeah, can you? Both things. If it's not too much trouble." Mark says, adding the last part as an afterthought.  
"Sure. Give me a minute and I'll be back with the pizza. And you know whatever happens I'm still your friend?" Iris asks.  
"Yeah, thanks Iris." Mark says.  
"Anytime, Mark." Iris says before going back into the commons.

Mark waits a couple minutes before Iris comes back. By then she's collected one plate of three slices of pizza and another plate of bedsticks and some cinnasticks too. She gives them to Mark with a vague comment about how she heard that testosterone raises metabolism so he probably needs more food than the average person or something like that. (Barry later informs Mark that food is Iris's way of being like "I support you and love you and think you're pretty cool.")

Over the next couple days almost everyone comes and gives Mark a hug and says they support him. The first one is Len about minutes later. They don't hug, but Mark gets an awkward pat on the back and a small speech about how he'll always support him and how they're friendship isn't determinant on his romantic identity. To be honest Mark tunes a fair bit of it out because it was getting sorta long and pun filled.

Barry's is pretty memorable.

"Hey, Mark. What's up?" Barry asks.  
"Not much. You?" Mark asks.  
"Same. So... You know there's a fair amount of ace and aro spec kids on campus?" Barry says.  
"No..." Mark says.  
"Well there is. I'm demi, but I usually don't tell people unless we're partners. I think we currently know of like 15 to 20. Anyways I run a group chat for us. So if you wanted me to add you to the chat I can do that. We mostly talk about memes and stuff, but sometimes we actually talk about being aro/ace spec and how it effects relationships. So if you wanna join it I can add you." Barry says.  
"Yeah, that'd be cool." Mark says.  
"Cool. So I'll add you. See you later." Barry said before leaving.  
"See you later." Mark said.

When Mark's 20 he's happy. He has a queer platonic partner. He doesn't have to make up crushes anymore, he doesn't have to hide, and he feels proud.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is andyneedstostop.tumblr.com  
> Cookies for comments (::)


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